Letters

December 12, 2001

Building Plans Show Clear Differences

Konover Corp. is asking the town of Canton to rezone more than 9 acres of residential land. By continually pointing to a project proposed for the opposite side of Route 44, it is attempting to divert attention from the merits of its own application. If the golf course plan is OK, then so must be ours, say representatives of Konover. However, the two are clearly distinguishable.

Three years ago, when the golf course developer asked to have the golf course rezoned from agricultural/residential to commercial, the developer represented to the town that the zone change was needed to effectuate plans to build an athletic facility. The application for the zone change at the golf course was virtually unopposed.

Apparently, Canton residents liked the idea of the proposed athletic facility and thought it was a good use for the land. However, when the developer changed its plans, the golf course's zone did not change. Once a zone change is made, it remains in effect, even after a developer's plans change. Thus, the golf course was, and still is, commercially zoned.

Now that the zone change was made at the golf course, the zoning commission's discretion is limited. There is a long list of uses allowed in a commercial zone, and ``The Greens'' plan for shops, offices and a training golf course is among the permitted uses. As long as a permitted use is proposed, the zoning commission can only require that the developer's plan comply with minimum zoning requirements. As proposed, the project known as ``The Greens'' goes beyond the existing minimum zoning requirements.

Based on the current proposal for the golf course property, 95 percent of the 130 golf course acres will be left free of buildings . The footprint will cover only 5 percent of the land. Even given the wetlands located on the property, according to town regulations, the project could be four times bigger. The Greens project will be twice the size of the structure Konover proposes to build, but it will be on eight times the amount of land.

In addition, Konover's application contemplates placing commercial development deep into a residential neighborhood. The 100-foot buffer Konover offers to neighbors does not compare with the vast expanse of natural wetlands buffer that the golf course site provides.

Konover is oversimplifying when it suggests the two projects are comparable merely because both propose commercial development along the same section of Route 44. The differences are striking.

Catherine A. Wilowski, Canton

Developer Using Children As Pawns

If Canton parents really have the best interests of our children at heart, we owe it to them to be discerning when we make decisions that will have long-term impacts on the health and wealth of our school system and of our town.

As the mother of two, the quality of Canton schools is critical to me. Therefore, it troubles me that an outsider has come to Canton, used our children as pawns in its business plan, and made claims and promises that are just not true -- all in order to seduce well-intentioned parents.

This scenario is so common across the country that there's even a name for it: the ``music man phenomenon." Seth Kaplan, an attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation, coined this phrase to describe this same plot being played out on the stages of towns all over the country. Like the stage musical's salesman, the developer arrives in town to say: ``Your children are in Trouble with a capital T, and we're here to sell you the solution.''

Like the salesman in the musical, the developer is just trying to make a living. There's nothing wrong with that, so long as what we buy won't hurt us. Noted economists and town planners, both local and nationwide, insist that big retail is the worst type of revenue-maker and that in the long run, this type of development is a harmful way to go.

Without this zone change, your children are doomed to an inferior education, warns the salesman. Ask yourselves, what did wall-to-wall retail do for the suffering schools of Enfield? Why are wealthy towns like Simsbury unable to afford building a new high school? Not because Simsbury doesn't have a Target. Why does wealthy Glastonbury have portable classrooms? Please look into it; you'll find that retail is not a moneymaker.

Without this zone change, we're told, this section of 44 will become home to Jiffy Lube and Burger King. Please remember, with the golf course development approved (an approval, by the way, made unavoidable because the golf course was rezoned to commercial in 1998), this already-commercial land is too valuable now for the likes of Jiffy Lube.